100k November Challenge – Challenge Complete!!!

Posted on November 30, 2014 by natalietrew

A month ago I set myself a challenge to run 100k in the month of November. Not only have I successfully completed my challenge, I’ve run 101k to be exact!

This week was my final week. I’ve been averaging 25k a week over 3-4 runs each week. I left my biggest challenge to last which was to run my longest run to date of 15k. It’s been another massive week which started with Mia waking at 4am on Monday!!! She then proceeded for the next three mornings in a row to wake between 4.30am and 4.45am, add in a ladies night out with my school mums, a massive week at work, taking the kids to specialist appointments and squeezing in a visit to see my grandad in hospital, to say I was tired by the end of the week is an understatement…oh and with only 6 more sleeps now until we board the plane for America, my mind is about to explode!

But once again my running has kept my head above water. It’s my therapy to keep me sane. It allows me to gather my thoughts, plan things out in my head and it keeps me relaxed and focused…although my family probably don’t notice that at the moment lol!

This weeks running consisted of two 5k runs – Tuesdays hill run was done in 25.05mins and Thursdays hill run was a naked run (no watch) but I checked the time on my iPod when I left and when I got back and I would have run that in about 26 minutes! I was happy with anything this week. My aim when I run is to just do that. I still hold a record of not stopping and now I’ve been running for 3 years, I have put pressure on myself to live up to those expectations every run!

By Friday, my mind was consumed with getting ready to celebrate an early Christmas with my family on Saturday and completing my 15k run the next morning. Thankfully I had a good night sleep on Friday night and as soon as I woke at 5am on Saturday I set off on my run. The weather was perfect. No humidity, a nice light breeze, but the sun was shining. I had no expectations for the run other than not to stop until I was finished. I decided to run my 4k flat route three tImes and then three extra kilometres to make the 15k.

I started off slower than I usually do. My first kilometre was 5.05mins and with each kilometre I became slower and slower. To be completely honest I wasn’t feeling it for the first 4k and when I saw 21.36mins I knew I had to pick up the pace. I finally picked up my pace and started to sit a lot more nicely into the run and when I reached 10k at 52.20 minutes, I was happy enough. As I approached the 12k mark, which was three times my 4k route, I told myself you can do one more lap…and I did!!

I was stoked when I got to 13k at 1 hour 9.30 minutes – new PB set!! The next two kilometres were so much easier than I anticipated. I would have loved to run 15k in 1hour 20mins or less so when I looked at my watch and it was 1 hour 20.50mins I was cheering to myself. I didn’t care how I ran the last kilometre I just didn’t want to stop until I reached 16k, but once again it’s amazing where that last bit of fuel comes from and when I reached my 16k mark, four times my 4k route, I was overjoyed that not only did I complete it without stopping but in 1 hour, 26 minutes and 10 seconds!!!! Was such a fist pump moment…until my legs started to buckle a bit lol (which surprisingly they feel great today!!!)

I did it I really did it and it wasn’t a disaster, it wasn’t painful like I thought it would be, there were times where I couldn’t wait for it to be over, but for most of it, I was so determined to be successful. I am a competitor and I compete against myself, so when I set out to run 100k for the month I had to do one better…and that I did…even if I ended up with war wounds!!!

I was so excited when I got home, the kids always run to me to see how I went – they always ask “how many did you run today mum?”…my response “I did it!!! I ran 16k!!!!!” “Wow mum!!!” they replied with:) My excitement was short and quick as my mumma duties kicked back in quickly as we had Christmas celebrations to get ready for…and what a great day it was!

Where to from here??
If my cardiologist approves, I am going to start training for my first half marathon in March for July next year. I’m quietly confident he will let me. Now I know I can run 16k that’s only 5.1k off a half marathon so hopefully I’ll be able to pull one-off! But for now, I will spend this week finishing off getting ready for our holiday we’ve been planning since we returned from our holiday to America 5 years ago!! My goal is to run at every place we visit over there…I shall keep you posted!

I hope everyone has had a great month challenging themselves to achieve new goals!

100k in November – week 3 progress!

Posted on November 22, 2014 by natalietrew

75k done and dusted….

What a week! This week has been a normal busy one which started off ok, but slowly went downhill starting from when I got a call from the school to say Bay was in sick bay with an ear ache! 1 – I’ve only ever had one other call from the school in 4 years and that was from the school’s PE teacher, asking my permission for Bailey to be changed to Cunningham sports house, after he asked to be in the same house as his cousins (bless him) and 2 – I’ve never had a child go to sick bay!

Poor Bay he has had a such a rough year. He has now ended up with an outer ear infection (swimmers ear) which the doctor said is very common in this extreme heat we are having! In all the years of my children getting ear infections, this has to be the worst I’ve seen one of my children suffer. He has been on pain relief for four days, ear drops, antibiotics, he’s had a leaking ear, jaw pain and you can’t touch his ear as the pain has been excruciating – poor kid. When he wakes in the night you know something is wrong and he has done several times this week;(

It’s been one of those weeks that consisted of unfortunate news for loved ones around…grandad developed an infection (but is finally on the mend) and my Aunty was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer (she now will fight the toughest battle of her life). This week in particular is always a week that leaves our hearts feeling heavy as it’s my cousins memorial day and my late aunty’s birthday – mother and son taken way too soon…may they be dancing in the heavens above with nana by their side!

But all this aside, I kept my 100k challenge as my focus to not let the week get the better of me!! I started on Monday afternoon this week. After running my longest run ever of 13k two days previous, I thought this 5k run would sting. I purposely did a naked run (no watch) as I didn’t care how long it took, I just wanted to get it done and under my belt! Surprisingly I didn’t feel bad at all. And from the time I left and got back, I would say it would have taken me about 26mins and I was happy with that!

Two days later I got up early to run 7k before my husband went to work! My aim for this run was to go out hard and try to maintain 5 minute kilometres!! When I ran my first kilometre in 4.44mins I was feeling great! I was happy to reach 5k in 24.44mins and this gave me the confidence to achieve my goal. The next 2ks couldn’t have gone any better…6k 29.08 mins and OMG 7k 34 mins!!!!!!!! Two PBs in one run – definitely my best run in a while!

I had planned to run the next day in the afternoon, but Kane didn’t get home until 5.45pm and I was simply tired! After being up with Bay in the night with his ear, I dragged myself out of bed Friday morning to run a quick short 3k. I would have loved a PB but after running a super 7k 2 days beforehand, I couldn’t expect too much. I was happy with 14.28mins…my PB is 13.53mins which I’ve run twice now – I will conquer this PB!!! I ran as fast as my legs would take me during this run and that’s what my plan was!

Technically I always like to have a day off between runs, but I also like to finish my weekly running on a Saturday and because I didn’t run Thursday afternoon, this meant running 13k in 24 hours. This was also day 19 from when I started my challenge which meant 75k of running complete in 19 days!!! I’m not going to lie this 10k hill run which consisted of 6 hills hurt. When I reached my 1st kilometre at 5.15 mins I knew this would be a slow and painful run. But to my surprise I didn’t pick up the pace much but my legs started to ease nicely into the run….until the 8th kilometre. I swear my feet barely lifted from the ground during the 8th and 9th kilometre as my legs were spent! They were screaming at me and my mind was screaming back at them. I was so glad to be finished and in 54.09 minutes I was pretty happy considering!

After my 10k was done I took the girls down to the footy field for a training session. Over the last 8 weeks my dad has done a fitness program with Bailey, Sienna and my nephew Kaleb. Mia was always promised to go for the last one and sadly Bay missed out because he was laid up with his ear! They trained their little hearts out and it makes me so proud that my children love leading a fit and active lifestyle and I appreciate everything my dad does to help this!

Poppy shouted the kids to lunch at Maccas as a treat for their awesome effort!

3 weeks down and 1 to go….or should I say 25k to go! This week will be my toughest challenge yet as I plan on running two 5k runs (easy) and a 15k run (not so easy) which will be my longest run to date….wish me luck I’m going to need it!!! I hit a brick wall this morning and felt so flat and tired but after a quiet morning, a swim at mum and dads this afternoon and hopefully a good night sleep tonight I’ll be ready to tackle another massive week as we are now down to only 2 weeks to go and I’ll be running in America!!!

Would love to hear how everyone else is going with their challenges this month!

100k in November…week 2 progress!

Posted on November 15, 2014 by natalietrew

Please someone tell me where did this week go???? Mid November already and what feels like in a blink of an eye I’ve gotten to this point!

I’m so happy to report my week 2 November 100k running challenge to be very successful!!! After starting the week with terrible sinus (thank you dry allergy season weather) I didn’t let this steer me off track. My first run for the week was a 7k hill run that I ran in 36.50mins. I thought my legs would be murder after the first week, but surprisingly they felt great! I ran the first 5k in 25.37 and was hoping to run closer to 36mins but the last two hills in the last 2k slowed me down just a touch, all in all I was happy with this run!

Two days later I set off at 5am for my usual 5k hill route…the days you think you’re going to run slow you end up going fast and vice versa!!! I was stoked when I saw 24.51mins on my watch…where the hell that came from I’ll never know lol! That was the day I came home to a little running partner who I ran up and down our cul-de-sac with until her little legs couldn’t run any further. She did so well!!! A runner in the making for sure:)

By this stage I was feeling great and had one run left of 13k to complete two days later…

13k, I have never run any further than 12k and have only done that twice on complete flat ground and it’s been a while since I did! But once I say I’m going to do something I do and I did!!!!! Due to the weather being so hot this weekend, as soon as my eyes opened at 4.50am I got up, got ready and was out by 5am! Thank goodness I did cause I was so hot by the end! I decided to run my 5k hill route twice and a 3k route that I use to run all the time when I first started running – in total this consisted of 5 hills…damn you Runcorn lol!

I ran the first kilometre in just under 5 minutes and was happy with my pace until I told myself “my legs are bit sore”!!! Why why why?? Lesson to everyone never tell yourself that you are in pain always tell yourself you are feeling great!! This mental thought slowed me down a bit and although I was 20.38mins at 4k I felt my legs tiring with each kilometre…my legs were starting to buck at my challenge. But I didn’t let this defeat me. My goal was to reach 10k by 53mins where I’d placed a water bottle to take with me for the last 3ks. I made it to that point in 53.37mins, my eyes were right on the prize which was to reach 13k by 1 hour and 10mins!!!

As I ran up the last hill in the 11th kilometre I kept telling myself “come on 3k this is easy!!!” I started to convince myself that I wasn’t going to reach my goal but when I made 12k in 1hr and 5mins, I gave that last kilometre everything I had left. I was getting quite delirious though. At one point in the end I tripped and almost fell face down again (story for another day lol), rolled my ankle on a ditch and what I thought was a blue heeler dog running at me it was a shih tzu lol…like I said delirious!!

It’s amazing where you find the energy to finish that last kilometre. I could feel my legs going faster and faster until they were at their peak. I gave it my all. I looked at my watch with 100m to go and had already clocked over 1hr 10mins, but only just. I finished in 1hr 10.50mins…I was stoked with that!!! I proceeded to walk the last kilometre home which I always do a good walk to warm down after each run and I was on top of the world….running any distance is such a great accomplishment!

You ask…how are my legs today?? They are great! I thought for sure I’d feel it but surprisingly they don’t feel any different after any long run. I swam in mum and dad’s pool today and tread water for 25mins which felt so nice. No rest for the wicked though. I’ll be back at it tomorrow to start my 3rd week’s 25k. This week I will be doing 4 runs….5k, 7k, 3k, 10k! Wish me luck…I shall keep you posted!!!

How is everyone going with their challenge for the month?

Never Judge a Book by its Cover!

Posted on November 11, 2014 by natalietrew

8 years ago when I gave birth to my beautiful ‘big’ baby boy and I became a mum for the very first time, I was calm, relaxed, the happiest I’d ever felt. I didn’t have a care in the world as my baby boy was such an amazing baby who fed and slept so peacefully…little did we know the ride we were in for!

Meet our baby boy…his name is Bailey, he is 8 years old and on Tuesday he was formally diagnosed with anxiety! I know some of you that know Bailey would be thinking really?? I guess you can never judge a book by its cover!

Anxiety…this word is tossed around so frequently now. It worries me that so many people in this world suffer mental health disorders and as someone who doesn’t, I’m sad for them as it stops them from enjoying some of the most precious things in life and leaves them feeling like they constantly have a monkey on their back!

Since the age of 18 months, Bailey has always been hard work. As a special education teacher, like my mother would say ‘you know too much’, I have always thought Bailey presented with a lot of ASD (autistic spectrum disorder) tendencies. He has always had major meltdowns when things don’t go his way, he doesn’t cope well with sudden change, he obsesses over particularly things, he can be highly emotional and sensitive, he worries over specific things, he’s sensitive to certain materials, he needs time to process information, but has never had any issues socially.

By the time he reached school age I knew it was going to be the crossroads of knowing whether to take him to a paediatrician or not. I held off taking it any further as he has never struggled in any area at school. He has always fitted in well and been the best behaved child. He has the ability to keep it together when he has to and loses his s$&t when he gets home.

I feel for parents who don’t have the necessary skills to cope with children who present with challenging behaviours. I am so grateful for my experience that I’ve gained from teaching, this has helped me immensely over the years. I remember having many days where I felt so alone and trapped in a bubble. Even though I knew what I was dealing with and how to deal with it, it’s so different when the shoe is on the other foot. Being a teacher to children with special needs is one thing, but being the mother is a whole new ball game!

Life with Bailey leaves us leading such a rollercoaster ride, there are so many ups and downs in our days. We always start each day fresh and we know the type of day it’s going to be right from the moment he wakes up. He can go days and be fantastic and then it only takes a late night, lack of sleep or a virus and he tires so quickly that he loses his ability to rationalise situations. He then becomes very oppositional and loses all inhibitions at his worst.

Our recent hurdle we’ve hit, which is what lead us to taking things further and seeing a paediatrician, is Bailey has developed a nervous twitch or what is called a tic. He has both a motor and vocal tic which can be so severe at times it’s quite distressing to see. I knew straight away this had taken his anxiety to a new level and felt that it was time to get him the help that he needed. This all started in conjunction with getting lost at the Ekka’s baby animal petting zoo last August. Over time things have manifested and spiralled to this point.

When I walked through the paediatrician’s door on Tuesday I thought to myself…”8 years it’s taken, I was wondering how long it would take to get here!” I went in with my 4 pages of notes (not a teacher at all lol) and felt so at ease about everything as the doctor we saw was amazing. I highly recommend Dr Anita Cohn at the Mater Hospital. She was very informative and straight to the point. She spoke about treatments and what would be best for Bailey.

Our plan for the near future is to get Bay the help he needs to deal with his anxiety. In terms of his tics, at this stage we are treating the underlying issue or the cause of them (anxiety) therefore Bay will start seeing a child psychologist in two weeks time. This will be an ongoing thing until we resolve some issues. We are back to our paediatrician in march for a review!

It’s been such a long road to get to this point in time. It’s been a huge learning curve for everyone who is involved in Bailey’s life on a daily basis. We are so lucky to be surrounded by such amazing, loving and influential people who no one has ever made Bay feel less about himself.

Admitting there is something wrong with your child isn’t easy and then taking the next step to get help can sometimes be just as hard. But I urge anyone of you who is reading this post, if you know that your little person may need help, do everyone a favour and ask. We are our children’s advocate and it’s up to us to make sure our babies, who we carried and nurtured into this world, are equipped with the skills to cope in this big bad world!

My advice for anyone who is living the same life…enjoy the highs and hold on tight during the lows….remember with a low there always comes a high. Be consistent, follow through and always talk through a situation once your child has calmed down. Reassure them they are loved and ok. Encourage them to try new thing and provide challenges for them. Don’t stress, keep calm as they feed off whatever mood you’re in. Be there to pick up the pieces and give them that hug that they so desire once the anxiety goes from verbal diarrhea to a sobbing mess.

In saying all of this, we as parents are only human – we have moments where our tiredness gets the better of us, we may feel sick or hormonal! I’m the first to admit I’m not parent of year and make my fair share of mistakes. Everything is easier said then done, but it really does make a difference when we are on our game and so worth it for a positive outcome. Running has definitely helped me keep me on my game!

</a

It’s been very difficult to see Bailey hit the level of anxiety he has. But like anything that has been thrown our way, together my husband and I shed tears when he’s not looking, debrief with each other every day and work together as a team in order to help Bay become the best person he can be!

Anxiety aside, my son is amazing! He is funny, caring, lovable, smart and very empathetic. He gives the best cuddles and always comes and says good morning to me before he starts the day. He is never shy to cuddle me in front of his friends and always seeks me out to tell me anything exciting that has happened or things that are worrying him. He is so good at sport! This is what he lives for and it’s great to seem him thrive at what he loves. He is a gentle giant that everyone loves to love!

We will get through this…this will not define my baby boy. This is a bump in his road that will make him stronger and more resilient. But for now I will keep being his mum to the best of my ability and be there to celebrate the awesome stuff and pick up the pieces when the train derails!

We are so proud to be Bailey’s parents and would do anything to help our boy – all we want is for our children to be happy!

100k in November – week 1 progress!

Posted on November 9, 2014 by natalietrew

First week of November is over already!!! And I’m happy to say although the week threw some ups and downs, I still managed to fit 25k of running in, therefore I’m on par with achieving my 100k for November!!!!

I started my running week on Monday morning, running 5k in 24 minutes…I’m so determined to run a sub 24 by the end of the year. I’m chasing my PB of 23.25, but I’d be happy with anything in the 23s!!! I had my days set but of course life always gets in the way and things don’t always go to plan! Kane ended up going to Sydney for 2 days, but thankfully I squeezed another 5k naked run (no watch or music) in before he left otherwise I would have done a lot of cramming in at the end of the week! After two days with just me and the kids – who I don’t know about your children, but mine are getting more tired as each day goes past, I got up at 5am Friday and fit a 53.30mins 10k hill run in before Kane went to work, which meant my long run was done before the weekend – yay! I finished my first 25k for the first week of this challenge with a nice steady paced 25.20mins 5k this morning and felt better than I thought I would!

I’m going to enjoy my day off tomorrow as I have a massive day at work and shall put all my energy into that! I will be starting my next lot of 25k for the new week on Tuesday. This week I plan on running three days instead of four but increasing my kilometres per run. The plan is 7km Tuesday, 5km Thursday and 13k Saturday which will be my longest run to date! But of course that is the plan….I shall keep you posted with how I go!

I’d love to here if you have set yourself a challenge this month and how it’s going!

Lights, Camera, Action!!!!

Posted on October 29, 2014 by natalietrew

There was plenty of sunlight, an amazing photographer behind a camera and lots of action…particularly from Bailey’s bottom!!! Our photo shoot for That’s Life magazine was a huge success!!!

When I accepted the offer of being apart of That’s Life magazine’s ‘Realvolution’ campaign, I never imagined it would involve having a 2 hour professional photo shoot and from that having the most precious moments captured forever as a memory. Since becoming parents, we have had many family portraits done. We usually get them done every few years now and only had them done a year ago. I’m stoked we’ve had the opportunity to get them done again and am so happy with how they have turned out!

During the two hours, I had 5 wardrobe changes, several different combinations of family shots were taken, a dozen different poses from myself were shot and even our beloved dog Sonny got was involved:) It was a nice relaxed afternoon in the comforts of our own home with a photographer who was so friendly, calm and patient!

Working with kids can be so difficult, but thanks to my son who let the most almighty, loudest piece of wind pass that I have ever heard in my life – to the point that it made the ground shutter and the photographer go bright red and LOL, we got some great shots with everyone’s happiness beaming and shining through the photos!

These are some of the photos taken…

I love family photos…they always make me feel so proud of what Kane and I have achieved! For us to get to That’s Life magazine it required me working hour after hour writing blog after blog, until that one day someone found one of my pieces. But the reality is as a team My Party of 5 work together for anything to happen, this whole magazine experience has been an awesome way to celebrate us!

100km in November!

Posted on October 25, 2014 by natalietrew

It’s time! Time to set a challenge!

Now that it’s November (I still can’t believe that) and only one month away from the festive season, I have set myself a challenge to run 100k this month! A month ago I wrote a blog 20/20, which was an insight into my school holiday challenge for myself – 20 days straight of exercise! Now that I’ve achieved that and made it to the other side of a massive but awesome October, I’m ready to push myself a little further than I normally run and instead of running an average of 18-20k a week, to successfully achieve this challenge I need to run an average of 25k a week!

Today I started my challenge with a fast 5k of 24 minutes and felt fantastic!! My plan is to run either three 5k a week and a 10k or two 5ks a week a short distance of 2,3 or 4k and a long distance of 11 or 12k! I have not put any pressure on myself to run any major PBS this month but would love to increase my longest run to 15k.

If you are a regular follower of my blog you would know the love I have for running and keeping fit and healthy. It’s been 3 years since I started on this journey and I’m so happy that one I started and two that I’m still going strong. But every now and again I like to mix things up and throw a challenge into my already crazy busy life – cause clearly I am crazy and not busy enough lol!

So now I challenge you! I challenge you to choose some form of physical activity that you wish to challenge yourself with this month. Create a goal, make a plan and stick to it! I’d love to hear about it if you do!!

I shall keep you posted with how I go:) Happy exercising!!!

Laughter…good for the soul!

Posted on October 18, 2014 by natalietrew

Our world we live in is so serious. It’s so busy and repetitive. Respect is something that fades more and more each year and words such a bullying, cyber trolls, depression, anxiety and the like are frequently thrown round like a rag doll. How did we get to this point?

In my opinion, good old-fashioned laughter isn’t used enough anymore. Life is so busy now (which is hard to avoid) but due to all the hustle and bustle we all live each day, people forget to stop breathe, smile and LOL! Shop assistants aren’t as friendly or helpful as they use to be and when I go for a run in the morning I always lift my head to say good morning to people just to be faced with them eyeballing the ground. If you ask my mother, she would say – “but you’re to the other extreme love….you’d talk to anyone and laugh at anything!

All I know is for me, laughter is a good dose of medicine. It’s great for the soul. It can turn a mood right around. It can turn a bad day into a good one. It can get your mind in gear to tackle the harder obstacles in life. I still remember the week we painfully sat with my precious nana, while she was slowly drifting away, we still had moments of laughter in the room. It wasn’t disrespecting the moment at all. We knew that nana could hear us and she would have wanted that as nana loved to laugh. She battled Parkinson’s for many years before she passed away and I think her ability to laugh right to the end contributed to her long jevity.

I’m so lucky that I am surrounded by many people who I can have a good laugh with. My husband and I after 17 years still laugh together every day. When we have get togethers with my family, there is always fun and laughter echoing through the house. I particularly laugh with my mum and sisters and I have many friends who I share laughter with as well. I love that my kids make me laugh every day. They all have such funny little characters and a child’s laughter is like music to my ears.

I find myself laughing wherever I go….I laugh at work, in the school yard, at the grocery store, at the television, at things on Facebook and Instagram, with my specialists and doctors – most importantly I can laugh at myself! My life is far from perfect and I face some hard days, this is when I draw on laughter the most and watch an episode of Friends or look at photos that make me laugh. I always say if I didn’t laugh I’d cry!

Today’s catch up with my two oldest dear school friends was a classic example of how laughter is good for the soul. A common denominator of our friendship is laughter. We use to laugh so loud and hard at school people would think we were nutters. I still vividly remember a trip we took to Sydney we spent the week laughing so much our stomach muscles were sore. But whenever I walk away from my gals, I always feel happy and uplifted. We don’t get to catch up as often as we’d like, but when we do we have a lot of laughing to catch up on and that we do!

I’ve been through and watched a lot of people in my life go through heartache. Life is too short not to laugh. Life is too precious not to enjoy it. If people would relax just a little, not be so serious and laugh more often, maybe just maybe our world wouldn’t be filled with so much crime and hatred, instead more love and happiness!

Really – laugh….it’s good for the soul!

A Decade of Marriage…

Posted on October 16, 2014 by natalietrew

10 years ago, at 3.30pm on October 9th 2004, I married my best friend, my lover and the man who would become the father to my children….we became husband and wife, Mr and Mrs Trew!

The day was magical, everything I’d dreamt of since I was a little girl. The big white dress, lots of pink, a pretty cake and most importantly there was definitely love in the air. We celebrated our day with 150 family and friends, ate beautiful food and danced the night away – my husband even did a strip dance to the Grease remix song – I still giggle when I think of this lol….all in all it was a wonderful celebration that was all about us and who we are! If I was ever given the chance I’d relive that day in a heartbeat!

10 years on and how things have changed! So much has happened in 10 years. We have shared so many wonderful memories together I don’t even know where to begin!!

The greatest achievement in our ten years of marriage though is creating our party of 5! Our three babies are our pride and joy and we are so proud of them. We’ve certainly had our ups and downs as parents, but with each hurdle thrown our way, we’ve jumped over it together (sometimes we’ve had to pull each other over it lol) but we’ve always come out the other end stronger.

We have laughed out loud lots together, shared in each other’s grief of the loss of loved ones, nurtured each other when sick (Kane has done this for me 10 to his 1 lol), been there for each other when we’re feeling down and supported each other with whatever we’ve wanted to do!

We have turned our house into a home, creating an environment where our children feel loved and safe. We have invested, bought several cars and been on numerous holidays – our first trip to America being our biggest highlight to date.

Our 10 years of marriage have been great – not perfect, but what marriage is! Marriage like parenting, was never meant to be easy. It’s something that has to be worked at everyday! It’s never meant to be taken for granted and needs to be nurtured to grow. It’s like a rollercoaster – you enjoy the highs and hold on during the lows.

To celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary, we tossed up many things to do. We went from staying at the Stanford Plaza for a night, to having a balance of time away with the kids and on our own to all of us together for three nights at our favourite Palm Beach resort. We made it a family occasion as that is what is so important to us!

We had the most amazing weekend. The weather was sensational, the kids had a ball. We ventured to the beach, the creek, walked through the mangroves and scooted to the park. We swam so much the kids must have been water-logged!! And of course I enjoyed my runs along the beautiful water front!

To top off the weekend, my lovely parents came down and stayed with the kids so we could go out and celebrate just the two of us! We had such a great night at Jupiters Casino eating loads, drinking a few and losing money on roulette! The night was topped off by a stroll along the beach watching the moon rise and watching the fireworks that were on at Southport! It was perfect:)

These past 10 years have been a real learning curve and as each day goes by we will continue to learn. We are so blessed to have some of the most amazing people around us who inspire us to the best we can be. Particularly my beautiful parents who are celebrating their 43rd wedding anniversary today.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the next 10 years holds for us. From this point we will continue to love and nurture each other. We will continue to enjoy our beautiful precious babies. We will continue to work very hard at building the life we want for ourselves and our children. But in the immediate future we will enjoy our first trip to America as a party of 5…only 7 weeks to go!!!!

Happy 10 year wedding anniversary Kane Trew…I love you with every single beat of my heart!

20/20….

Posted on October 6, 2014 by natalietrew

Today marked 20 days straight of exercise!

20 days ago, I finished work for term 3 and started what would end up for me, because I work part-time, 20 days of holidays. I set myself a challenge that I would exercise every day of my 20 days off and I can happily say that I completed my challenge today…20/20 done!

Over the past 20 days, I have run more than 50km, walked for hours, done a total of 40 minutes worth of planking, boxed for minutes on end and have done numerous amounts of squats, leg raises and lunges! And I’ve enjoyed ALMOST every second of it lol! Each day I would exercise for half an hour to an hour and in 24 hours that’s so simple to accomplish.

My love of exercise and particularly my running, is not only assisting me in keeping fit, lean and healthy, it’s my therapy. It keeps me sane. It helps me stay on top of the craziness that life brings when you’re a working mum of 3 kids under 8! It’s the only time I can focus on the thoughts in my head and where I spend a lot of time planning projects or daily chores. It’s my time where nothing else matters except for me! Most importantly it’s my energy….if I start my day with exercise I accomplish so much in my day – it makes me happy and I always feel fantastic after it!

There were only a few times over the past 20 days where I had to force myself to complete my daily exercise but I did it! Because the kids have been on holidays as well, they enjoyed many days with me and would ride their bikes while I walked or would plank alongside me. It’s been enjoyable for everyone!

I love my active lifestyle that I live. Between exercise and healthy eating, it’s not only giving myself the best chance of keeping my heart condition at bay, it’s leading a good pathway and setting a positive example for my very active children. I’ve been living this exact lifestyle for 3 years now and I haven’t yet steered off track. When I am feeling a bit flat or am in need of something to spice things up, I set myself a challenge like the one I’ve just completed. It allows me to regather and refocus on something new…like they say change is as good as a holiday!

My next challenge is to run 100k in the month of November 😳….wish me luck!!! 👍
I shall keep you posted!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: